Friday, December 29, 2017

Mr. Magoo has been adopted!

I'm a little sad to see him go because he is such a delight, but that is outweighed by how excited I am for him and his new person.

Magoo in his new home!

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Mr. Magoo: random photos and video

He cracks me up.

While I did not let him into the basement (behind that door), Magoo did not let this stop him from exploring a nook and/or cranny and rolling in the dirt.


Like many pets, Magoo also enjoys visiting the refrigerator.



Earlier in the day, I heard items falling off the coffee table. When I looked, I discovered that none of it was on purpose. He stepped on something and then it slipped out from under him. Repeatedly.

Pardon the mess, but I thought I was going to capture him slipping and sliding the things to the floor again, not watch his own back foot drag him over the edge (which was arguably even funnier).

Mr. Magoo doesn't understand furniture

Some mornings, around the time our alarms go off, we hear scrabble-scrabble-scrabble-thud as Magoo fails to jump up on the bed to say hello.

Sometimes he makes a second, successful attempt, and sometimes we help him up.

He seems to like hanging out once he can find a comfy spot.


The problem is that he has absolutely no concept of where the edge is and, if unsupervised, will inevitably slide right off and have no idea how it happened.

Same goes for laps. He won't jump into a lap by himself, but if he looks like he wants to be closer and he gets picked up, he might groom himself furiously and then fall asleep. Just keep an arm handy, because if he stretches and rolls, he will be shocked when he rediscovers that gravity works.



Mr. Magoo the Mighty!


Don't let that picture fool you, he just walked up to that toy and sat down. There was no epic battle leading up to this moment.

But when he is in the mood to run around the house like a crazy thing with his floofy tail straight up in the air, I discovered that if I got down at his height and got his attention, he would come over and jump on my head. Of course I thought this was hilarious, so I set up the camera and captured this:


It took a few more tries, but I did eventually capture the head pounce.


And here's one more charming photo of him being relaxed for no reason other than he is a handsome little fellow.




Sunday, December 17, 2017

Mr. Magoo: three quick stories

This dude.

He's gotten brave in the last week, he's been going into the room where The Bath happened (two weeks ago). Not spending much time, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

That said, he did have a flashback once. I was doing my makeup before going out for the evening and he walked into the bathroom, looked around, and our interaction essentially went like this:

Him (growling): I DON'T LIKE IT IN HERE.
Me: So why are you here? You can just leave.
Him (growling): ...I THINK I WILL.

He stopped growling as soon as he passed through the doorway.

Since then, he's been in and out with no problems.

Photo relevant, but not from the evening mentioned.



At least once that we've seen (and possibly once more while we were both at work) he's managed to start the Roomba. Suddenly, the silent house beetle he'd been standing on sang a little song and whirred to life! I was not fast enough to get a photo of the look on his face, but it was decidedly bewildered.

He doesn't seem to be all that afraid of it, though. Cautious, but once in a while he'll let it bump into him, so he's not always on guard around it.



Any time I'm in the kitchen and holding something – plate, spoon, box, jar, it doesn't seem to matter – he gets all excited and wants to check it out. He pretends like he wants to climb up my leg, but he has problems coordinating anything in the 'up' direction, so he mostly ends up rotating halfway around and landing on his feet facing the wrong direction.

Sometimes I'll lean down and let him sniff whatever it is I'm holding. At least, I think that's what he's trying to do. He often ends up high fiving it instead, which is awkward if the thing is a spoon with something wet or sticky on it, because then he has an icky paw he doesn't want to put on the ground (or let me clean it). And then he looks all betrayed like it's something I intentionally did to him.




Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Mr. Magoo is doing normal cat things

Magoo has forgiven us for giving him a bath last weekend.

I think he's forgiven us for putting a collar on him.

He's doing more normal cat things now, too! Like jumping up on the coffee table or on top of the desks and pushing stuff off. Mostly by walking over a stack of paper and it slipping out from under him. I don't think he's knocked anything over on purpose.


He did some exploring under the desk, too. I couldn't tell if he was comfy or stuck, but either way he didn't seem terribly distressed about it. After considering a nap, he sorted himself out and wiggled free.

When he had a burst of energy he chewed on my hand a bit. Or my leg. No harm done. It pinched a bit but he didn't break the skin.

And he let me clip his claws! I didn't even need to hold him in place. He leaned against me and groomed himself, and when he took a break I clipped a claw. As long as I went slow and only did one or two at a time, he was completely fine with it.



Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Mr. Magoo goes up and down stairs

Because he has cerebellar hypoplasia, I wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle the litter box, jumping, and stairs. Turns out he does just fine with all three!

Except for that one time he was next to the litter box and did a pre-pounce butt wiggle and fell in. Then he rolled around in it and got comfortable, peering out at us from just over the rim.

That is not something we want to encourage, but at least it was clean! (We probably didn't need to, but we put a cover on the litter box after that.)

Stairs are fine as long as he doesn't try to rush down.



He is definitely okay with launching himself up the stairs.





Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!

Mr. Magoo got a bath

Magoo had a lingering aroma about him, so we gave him a bath. (We tried cat wet wipes and dry shampoo first, the former didn't have much affect and the latter made him smell worse.)

For his future forever home, please note that he does not do well with getting a bath.

Good news: it's the first time I have ever bathed a cat and not gotten a single new bite or scratch. He didn't fight at all, just sad-meowed while we soaped him up and rinsed him off.

Bad news: Once we took him out and started to towel him off, he started growling and hissing like a terror. He continued to do so for several hours. He holds a grudge!

Even two days later he was still intermittently growling and hissing. At us, at police sirens outside, at a door, at whatever happens to be in front of him when he gets a little freaked out or suddenly remembers he's holding a grudge.


At first I thought it was the smell in his fur of other cats that he kept smelling and thought he was surrounded by invisible enemies, but it continued after he had dried off.

He isn't hiding at all, in fact he seems to be making it a point to be in the same room as us. He's very much like his usual goofy self, rolls around and shows us his belly, accepts pettings and being picked up, plays like a champ...and then at irregular intervals he'll start growling, hissing, and making empty threats of attack (lunges and threatens to bite, but doesn't cause any harm). A few seconds later he either forgets or gets distracted and life goes on.

It could be that having CH makes his senses dull or contributes to him being a little bit confused most of the time (which might explain why he seems to be comforted by touch, so chill about being picked up, and isn't excited about canned food, treats, or catnip). And/or it could be that because of his condition he feels vulnerable all the time and the bath really threw him for a loop, so he puts on a big scary show so nobody finds out that he's really not scary at all.

I don't feel at all threatened by him, even when he growls and lunges, I just feel bad that he's so upset and is having such a hard time getting over it.

I don't think I've ever seen a cat growl and close his eyes at the same time, it's very confusing.

Here's a perfect example.
It's the night after the bath, and this happened:


Fifteen seconds after the video stops, he growled but made no effort to move, and started grooming himself.

A minute later he growled some more, attacked a sleeve (without causing any actual harm), and got up to growl at us from across the room. 30 seconds after that, he was silently grooming himself and then lay down to doze in the middle of the room.



Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!

Monday, December 4, 2017

Mr. Magoo: Full of silly

Hanging out at home on a Friday night.





Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Mr. Magoo: Cat of Mystery

I wonder what goes on in his head.





Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Mr. Magoo: Some observations

Some observations from the first few days.

Observation 1: every time there is an unfamiliar sound, the ceiling must be checked for danger.

Yeah, I know, he's probably listening to determine direction, but my version is funnier.

Observation 2: forward, backward, and changing directions are fine, but going over something or getting out of something is tough. He spent a lot of his supervised roaming time on Day Three getting in and out of the bathtub for no reason and it was clearly a struggle every time. Once he falls over, which happens any time he leans in to a chin scratch, he also struggles with putting himself back upright.

Observation 3: he likes attention and is affectionate, but he's not really a snuggler. Maybe it's because he has a hard time sitting still when there are so many things to run over to and sniff and pounce upon and stick his head in. I bet he'll be into cuddles in another year or two when a little bit of this youthful energy has burned off. Or maybe next week. He's been adjusting a heck of a lot faster than I expected him to, so what do I know?

Observation 4: sometimes he wants to be close to your face. It can be hard to tell if it's to play or to be picked up or sniff, but he'll make eye contact and threaten to climb my leg if I don't do whatever it is he wants me to do. I say "threaten to" because what ends up happening is that he'll dance around on his back legs that don't quite obey their instructions and wave his front paws, but never quite makes contact.

One of these times I got down on the floor just to be closer to his height because that's what he seemed like he wanted. I got this photo.


Then he purred and stepped on my face several times.

Observation 5: he is so very gentle! I clipped his claws the second or third day he was here, and while he did chew on my hand in protest, it was pinchy and not puncture-y. Even if he rears up with claws out in play, he doesn't really commit. He's all bluff, he's not trying to hurt. No hand or ankle attacks, either!

Observation 6: his fur is very soft and he builds up a lot of static electricity, the poor little dude.



Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!

Friday, December 1, 2017

Mr. Magoo: Day Two

Day Two is much improved from Day One! It's hard to get a handle on his body language because it's difficult to tell how much of what he does is intentional. His energy level is directly proportional to his lack of focus. He is everywhere, constantly moving and sniffing and sticking his head in things and falling over and trying to jump and playing with this-thing-no-that-thing-is-better. And then I tried to set up a cat cube and he helped.


He did this a few times – flop in, somersault around the inside, ooze out.





Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Mr. Magoo

Mr. Magoo is an energetic 1-2 year old fellow with cerebellar hypoplasia, which means his motor skills are defective and he kind of walks like he's on a boat.

I will take photos when I can, but at time of writing he's been in the house four days and he almost never stops moving. I'm not entirely convinced he sleeps. So we have video instead!

He was very unhappy at first. He meowed, growled, hissed, and shrieked the whole time he was in the shelter office, most of the car ride, and intermittently for several hours after we set him up in our guest room/cat acclimation center.


We left him alone for a while, and then tried visiting one at a time. By the time we went to bed, he was easily startled if we made too much movement or noise, but didn't freak out with both of us in the room and he was curious and exploring. Big step in the right direction!


He even played a little bit! I'm glad, because he obviously has a lot of energy. Although it sort of got away from him in the middle and he couldn't seem to figure out where it went wrong.





Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Nike has been adopted!

Nike was adopted at the Gifford Cat Shelter's 2017 Fall in Love adoption event. I'm so happy for him!

From the Gifford cat shelter's Facebook page

Nike the Athlete

He's come a long way!

When he first arrived, he was tubby and lazy.

How lazy? Lazy enough that he couldn't always be bothered to actually stand up to try to catch a toy.


If he didn't get exercise, he was cranky, but he was just so bad at catching the toy he wasn't motivated to get that exercise and I didn't know what to do.

Luckily for me, Gifford had an expert I could ask about cat behavior, and on her advice we started rewarding effort with treats. It worked! After a while we raised the bar to giving a treat when all four feet got off the ground at the same time. And then it stopped being every time because then it would be too many treats.


While this leap attack is never actually successful as far as catching the feather is concerned, I do love his mighty war cry. And often half the attack is verbal, which I find hilarious.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Nike assessment

I was going to go to bed, but then someone decided to sit on my lap.
His little purr is so heavy, all I could do was accept my fate and stay put.
And take a selfie.

After having Nike around for more than 6 months, here are the thoughts I have:

Nike is a steady dude. He's an older cat, but I wouldn't describe him as elderly. If he were human, he might be a retired sea captain.

He's healthy! No infections or illnesses, the only vet appointment we've had was for booster shots.

He uses the litter box like a pro.

He is declawed, but still likes to use the scratching post once in a while.

He thrives on routine and likes to hang out with people. He's not at all shy, but he also isn't needy.

He is not at all destructive (just keep plastic bags out of his reach), and likes to be in the same room as people. I think his favorite days are when we hang out at home all day.

He doesn't jump up on anything higher than human sitting level, like a couch or chair, maybe a bed if he's feeling energetic. No counters, no sinks, no shelves.

His body language can be a bit subtle, but I can generally figure out what he's trying to communicate. He can bite if his signals (like "stop petting me") are not seen or acknowledged, and he can get irritable if there's a break in routine. Regular play sessions definitely help him be on his best behavior!

He doesn't like being picked up.

He's not a fan of small hiding spaces.

Catnip doesn't thrill him.

He's had phases of sleeping on the bed for part of the night, but lately he's been sleeping under the bed (in the same room, but in his own personal space). He really prefers to hang out on laps when someone awake will pet him, he's not big on buddy naps.

If I'm home during the day, he'll come over and plop on my lap for an hour or so at a time, just to hang out.

Overall, he's a good low-maintenance companion. I just know he's someone's perfect cat!


Monday, July 10, 2017

Nike's Three Stages of Play

In the last few months, Nike has gotten a lot better about biting. He's not biting as often or as hard. At first it was every 1-3 weeks, and at this point the last time he left a mark was three months ago.

I speculate that it's partly him really settling into the routine of our house, partly my learning to read his body language better, and partly us compromising our behaviors. Regular playtime 3+ times a day really helps! (A few minutes before I go to work, a few more when I get home, and before I go to bed at minimum)

This was more common about three months ago, but it can still come up once in a while if I'm too busy to give him enough exercise. Not that he needs much, and it's definitely treat-motivated, but it's definitely good for him. He's lost a lot of the tubbiness he had when he first arrived, too.

Play With Me Stage 1: pointed stare from across the room



Play With Me Stage 2: face rubbing on nearby objects and leg
(this is usually where it stops these days; the more playtime he gets on the regular, the more patience he seems to have)

Play With Me Stage 3: teeth placement (not hard)


Monday, February 20, 2017

Nike: Groomer of Facial Hair

Husband washes his facial hair twice, once before and once after Nike grooms him.


Friday, February 10, 2017

Nike: Wrapper of Gifts

So helpful.
(Yes, my wrapping paper is currently a stash of old road maps)


Shiny bow?! Maybe just a little taste.

It knows what it did.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Nike Doesn't Hate Belly Rubs

I thought I'd tempt fate and try to rub his belly.* All that white fur just looks so soft!

And, as it turns out, I didn't lose my hand (and his belly fur is even softer than the rest)!




*Okay, really more his chest than his belly. There's a limit to how much I'm willing to push my luck.

Friday, January 20, 2017

Nike: the Greetings

Nike greets both of us at the door when we come home, and shows zero interest in running out the door (I'm still not used to that, the cat I had for 13 years dashed out every chance he got).

When my husband comes home from work, he lies down on the couch and reads his phone while Nike parks himself on his chest or legs.


A little later, when I come home, I sit on the floor and pet or brush him. He loves being brushed.



Related: sometimes he drools when he's happy. A slow drip from right under his nose.
Happy drool is adorable.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Nike is Not a Basement Cat

Nike realized I was doing laundry in the basement one afternoon and was, for some reason, distressed by this.

Our basement is literally a one-car garage with a small back room for laundry, it's not like it's a cavernous space or anything.